
Parque das Ruínas
Brick ruins of a Belle Époque mansion, now a hilltop art gallery, theater, and open-air concert venue.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Parque das Ruinas in Rio's Santa Teresa follows the mansion a young heiress, Laurinda Santos Lobo, built here around 1900 and filled with musicians, painters and writers for roughly three decades, among them Heitor Villa-Lobos, Tarsila do Amaral and Isadora Duncan. You'll hear how her salon earned her the nickname the marechala da elegancia, and what became of the house in the decades after she died in 1946. A good spot to listen: the steel walkway threaded through the bare brick.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Parque Lage
Renaissance-style palace and gardens built by a shipping magnate, now a free art school and cafe.
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB)
Neoclassical former bank and stock exchange turned into one of the world's busiest art centers.
Museu da Chácara do Céu
Modernist hillside villa turned art museum, raided of four masterpieces one Carnival night.
Largo do Boticário
Neocolonial mansions turned crime-ridden ruin, seized by the city and later restored.
National Museum of Brazil
Former imperial palace rebuilt after a fire destroyed most of its two-century collection.
Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro
Basement hall in Assyrian and Persian style, once a cabaret and ballroom, now a theater cafe.